Dream A Little Dream Of Me
by TheElvenKingOberon94
Summary: Luna and Applejack are two ponies with a similar problem- they both feel something is a little bit off with their lives. With Luna's recent return and Applejack's constant lucid dreaming in the Dreamlands, things are not looking up for the pair. Soon the two- with a little help from their friends will have to protect Equestria from the horrors of the Mythos. Reimagining of season 2
1. All I Have To Do Is Dream

"Now who could that be?" Twilight looked up from her experiment over multiple realities and space travel with a huff and trotted over to her door. The old, wooden door creaked gently as it slowly opened to her visitor on her doorstep. She was greeted by a nervously smiling Applejack trying to hide her blushing face with her Stetson hat. And her mane was disheveled, just barely being held by her ponytail and a few strands fell over her eyes with reckless abandon.

"Applejack? What brings you to. . .here?" Twilight was trying to process why the honest earth pony would come to her for anything during the day. The Acres was currently in Applebuck Season , so seeing the mare in town was a rare occurrence.

Applejack glanced around for a couple moments, her eyes shifting slowly back and sure that nopony could overhear what she wanted to say. "You know what, Twi? Let's go on inside."

"Sure."

The two mares turned around and cantered into the kitchen. Twilight opened a cupboard with her magic, floated over two cups, grabbed some coffee out of her pantry and started the coffee machine that she had just recently got for those late night science sessions.

"So? What's eating you, Applejack? I haven't seen you like this since last year's Applebuck Season. Are you-"

"Oh it's not that, Twi, its something a bit more personal. . .I don't know how I feel about somepony."

The unicorn stared at her. Finally after staring blankly at the wall for a while, the sound of the coffeemaker saying in its own special way that the coffee was ready broke her out of her reverie. "I don't get it, AJ."

Applejack smacked a hoof in her face and motioned for Twilight to get the coffee. While the unicorn was prancing about the kitchen, Applejack took it upon herself to explain her emotions.

"Twi, have you ever felt love?"

"Can't say that I have. Now if you are talking about the scientific aspects of what someponies would call love- then yes I have. Just scientifically and chemically and never all at once. I am perfectly content with just being the Princess'-"

Applejack held up a hoof to silence the rambling unicorn. "No, Twilight. Ah, mean like love at first sight where you just know that you want to be with the pony that you just see and it clouds your judgment and such." Twilight almost lost the grip on the coffee cups and had to quickly set them down.

"AJ, I don't. I've been so focused on my studies of friendship that love just slipped my mind. I mean Discord did a real number on the town last month and Princess Luna has been working overtime trying to get all the nightmares out of the affected ponies. Not to mention my own slip up with crazy."

Applejack flinched at the recent memory of her discorded state and winced at what some of the fillies and colts must have been going through. Applebloom had been eerily silent about what had happened during that mean Discord's takeover. Not to mention that she had caught her brother sleeping with Twilight's Smarty Pants doll that he stole the week after that.

Well that was because Twilight went insane over procrastinating, but maybe Twilight wanted it back. Nah, Twilight was a grown mare. She could deal with a lost toy. Probably.

"Actually I wanted to talk about Luna. . ."

Twilight really didn't like that Applejack was being cryptic around whoever she liked. Bringing Luna up just seemed odd. There was no reason for Applejack to care one way or another about Luna. And now she was asking. . . about. . . Luna. Finally it clicked. And then Twilight went into panic mode. Her fight-or flight response triggered heavily. She knew, she just knew that Applejack and Luna just would not work and- Oh Celestia.

"Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" The entire town of Ponyville shuddered as most of the residents had flashbacks to the Want-It-Need-It Spell.

"Twilight! Calm down! Just calm down!"

"But you. And her." Said purple unicorn was flinging books everywhere to prepare for the coming Princess visit that this news would cause. And just in case, she was packing a suitcase full of her possessions to live the life of a hobo out near Appleloosa and ride the rails with her dragon minion.

"So what? You can't freak out every time a Celestial darned Princess is coming to town. Is that word like a trigger or something?"

"Don't be silly! The word 'P- is not my trigger. Its just that I don't want to speak their names in case they decide that their punishment for the Want-It-Need-It spell wasn't harsh enough. "

Applejack just laid a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Sugarcube. You only only said Princess in your head. And that's reasoning is just silly. Ah know that givin' the responsibility of writin' those letters to Celestia will suck. Ah never learn anything that isn't related to apples- apple math and applenese notwithstanding. You just have to worry about some silly friendship lesson while Ah have a love issue. Ah'll just go while you calm down. Can you send Spike over to the Acres. Ah wanted to write a letter to Luna."

Twilight looked up with bleary eyes and sniveled her response to Applejack. It sounded like 'Magic Kindergarten' and something about Spike being upstairs. And something about learning about apples sounded boring. Chalking that last statement as a reaction to Twilight's mental power going whackadoodle and not at all putting her purple unicorn friend on her 'miffed at list' Applejack yelled up to Spike and quickly hoofed it on out of there cursing her luck with crying mares. She never had been a mare that could deal well with tears.

The Acres was a busy place this time of year. The apples were ripe and shone with the brilliance of a thousand apple harvests. Applebloom was doing her cutie mark hunting with her friends and Big Mac was bucking the trees with extra ferocity this year. His side had healed up nicely after last year's farming accident and nopony could see the faint discoloration in his coat from when he got stuck in the cow stampede. Granny's hip was hurting just as much as usual and it hadn't warned the clan about rain, so the farmers were having a mighty fine time harvesting.

The Apple Barn stood proudly on its hill and told everypony of its history. Recent history since it was still a dark red and gleamed in the sun since its old predecessor was Sonic Rainnuked to oblivion a few weeks prior.

Applejack trotted up and nodded to her family. Spike was following at her heels and was trying to balance a couple of scrolls precariously with his stubby arms. The walk over from Ponyville had tired the baby dragon but he hadn't asked for Applejack to slow down and let him on her back. And with Applejack thinking more of a blue-maned alicorn princess, she forgot to ask.

"We're here Spike." Applejack gently rested her hat on the nearby hat rack and sat down on the couch. Its worn fabric comforted the orange mare in its embrace.

"Right, so what was with Twilight back at the library?"

"Oh, that? She just- uh, something something-" She could tell a lie and feel good about herself. AJ sighed. "I needed to talk to Luna and told her something that freaked her out.. You know how she gets sometimes."

Spike needed no more explanation because her did know Twilight on her really bad days when wearing an armor made out of pillows and a pith helmet didn't sound like a stupid idea and was safer than talking back to the unicorn.

"Alright so you have to send this letter right to Luna. And say its from Twilight. You got that?"

Spike saluted the farm pony and waited for her to didn't get why it had to come from Twilight. Second guessing a letter was not in his number one assistant description.

_"Dear Princess Luna. . ."_

Princess Luna glided silently through her realm of dreams. The moon stared down at her silently watching her progress. The alicorn mare sighed as she felt truly free in here; there weren't any normal ponies that could easily dreamwalk without her permission and Celestia had given her binding word that she wouldn't intrude in matters of the dreamlands. While her lowly demesne had seen better days with Nightmare Moon running the show in the Dreamlands for the last thousand years, the alicorn mare had been trying to patch things up with the other lands: Mnar, Serannian. Lomar, and even the terrifying heights of Kadath.

The bleak landscape of dead and dying trees and gray clouds mirrored Celestia's earthly realm of light. The Dreamlands were nice for that at least, even when she got the worst and bleakest of the lands for sale by the Great Ones.

Luna had tried to adjust back to being a Princess with her own court dealing with the problems of the night but ponies were still distrustful of her. _"Guess that is what happens when they see you as a old mare's tale come to life."_ The aristocratic families that Luna had been coerced into greeting with her sister were not understanding of dark magic corruption and Luna had tried to explain her own shift in behavior. But then the words were thrown: Enchantress, demon, chains, Tartarus. Not in that order, of course, but Luna could tell that Celestia was pained at the sight of her loving subjects piling on the hate like that. That was the day that her sister had shown her the wonders of ice cream and romantic movies.

Setting down on the cracked and parched earth that Luna had grown so accustomed to while asleep on the moon for a millennia, she searched for the colors that told her what a pony was dreaming. Luna had become a master at viewing what those psycho-ana-whatsits would call the 'emotional spectrum'. Celestia, in all her sisterly meddling, had tried to make her go to one to talk about her feelings. That turned out to be a mistake because the stallion was still getting over the emotional scars in a Canterlot mental facility.

She shook her violently to rid herself of that horrible memory. She had a job to perform and it had to do with Twilight Sparkle. Well, the letter she had received via dragonfire was cryptic to say the least, but Luna guessed it had to have been important for the purple unicorn to send with such urgency.

She felt the sky shift pink as her mental alarms went off in her personal kingdom. The wards that she had placed beforehand to tell when a dream was of such importance that it needed her own presence there instead of one of her magic constructs She halted in her tracks; pink was a strange color for a personal visit. The color was tinged with feelings of matrimony and passion- things that she hadn't truly felt in a very long while. Of course she still had love in her heart for her sister, but true passionate love that enveloped her in deep riotous passion? That had been many a year since she had felt that.

The sky in her Dreamlands was normally gray to most ponies. But to her it swirled with the colors that told her what every subject of Celestia was dreaming about. White were babes just born dreaming their first thoughts into the open void. Orange were the dreams of monetary gain and slander. Red was of boundless rage fulfilling the primal side of ponies. Yellow were the nightmares that ponies feared in their hearts. Blue were caregivers generously giving their all to the masses. Green was the color of steadfast belief in oneself even to the point of near foolishness. Pink was of love, a domain that most ponies wanted her to stay out of. Cyan was of the hope of a better future.

Black was another matter altogether. It was a warning that the myriad number of creatures that covered the Dreamlands were trying to invade Celestia's magic land of rainbows and sunshine. And she couldn't have that. The bad thing was that without a lucid dreamer- there was no way to control the hordes of horrors without constant wards against Celestia's ponies waking from slumber. And a lucid dreamer hadn't been seen since the time of Equestria's founding.

Applejack woke up in the land that haunted her dreams again. The orange earth pony stared down at what her Granny would call 'a blasted heath' and sighed. She felt the cold, unwelcome feeling of death and decay in these rolling fields. The hills couldn't sing their mountain tunes as she went along her applebucking way. Of course, there were no apples here. It wasn't the first time she dreamt of these rolling hills- not even the thousandth. Every night, she tried to coax the barest hints of life through these sad pieces of ground that were weeping under whatever cruel weather that brought this drought here.

Glancing over to her left, there was a well that taunted her with its presence. She had tried the darned thing once and she could have sworn that something foul laughed up at her and taunted her farming skills. The next night, the well was a run down mess. That was a few years ago and she never touched that well again. She was afraid to. It seemed as if she had toyed with something that ponies just weren't supposed to know.

"Guess Ah'll just be doin' the rounds tonight. . ." Applejack sighed. Seeing such a field every night made her worry more and more when her dreams came true and the Acres would look like a wasteland. She felt something looking over at her, she was worried it was another one of those weird wolven things that spoke with their strange language. "If those ruddy good for nothings are gonna come up in my field and hope that Ah'll be merciful, they got another thing comin'"

Then the feeling passed. The earth pony sighed and walked into the dilapidated excuse for the Acres to get her tools for building a mare-sized plow. She knew that without Big Mac around in this dream she would have to do everything by hoof.

The silent wind whispered through the dead trees and the old Acres groaned in protest. The boards were so old that they were beginning to rot apart and the rusty nails were the only hoof made things that were still giving up the good fight. The old chicken coop had fallen a few dreams back, and the pig sty was due to fall and die in a blaze of glory as soon as the summer would come.

That was the strangest thing about here. There were no real seasons; it was just the same old gray skies night in and night out. At least she had wrote the letter to summon Luna. She really wanted Luna to know something about her and she couldn't wait until next Nightmare Night in a month.

Luna was running through the possible things that Applejack could be. After all, Celestia had placed a ward upon the race of ponies that she ruled over with a mostly benevolent hoof. That act had made her subjects fully slumber when they entered the Dreamlands. So Applejack most definitely was not a normal pony.

"So that means one of two things: starting with the least probable- she as an Avatar of one of those things that seem to gravitate towards me. Great Old Ones can be very annoying, but if she's an Avatar for an Elder God. . ." Luna downright paled at the thought since Discord was one of the most recent Avatars of Nyarlathotep and that had turned into a mess.

"Barring the thought that Honesty would have chosen such a Bearer, she could be a lucid dreamer. But I haven't seen one since the Founders of Equestria. . ."

Thoughts of Smart Cookie's exploits against the Windigoes during the Age of Winters sprang to mind. Luna and Celestia had been just foals then- not soulbonded to their celestial bodies and just as mortal as the other races of the land. Smart Cookie had been one of the few warriors that Luna had built her kingdom for. She had taught the new alicorn how to control the dreaming with a single thought and how to appease the older races in this twilight world. So seeing an honest to goodness lucid dreamer made Luna giddy with anticipation. she has become bored with normal life and her difficulty with connecting to these ponies made her worried about how easy it was to be forgotten in the sands of time and demonized as Celestia's enemy.

Luna shot up and squealed in joy. A real lucid dreamer in her domain? That was like hitting the Dreamlands jackpot. The chance to change parts of the fabric of her Demesne Lunae- Nightmare Moon had never been one for catchy names- and maybe not be taken as a complete joke with her surrounding neighbors across the Dawn Sea that separated her Kingdom from the more brutal lands.

_"That means I can finally be towards the other side of the Dreamlands where even I dare to tread. Especially after the whole Moon debacle of the year of Nkar. I always forget that dream felines can fly to the moon." _

And after reliving the memory that made her deathly afraid of Equestrian cats for a good reason, she began to briskly trot towards the Bearer of Honesty for a nice little chat about being her knight. A knight was known by a different name in the Dreamlands- a Shield, where it denoted an intelligent creature that would protect the heart of their liege.

Applejack was worried about this next part of her nightly chores. Plowing, while not usually her work, was hard on anypony that tried to force the plow into places it didn't want to go. And the earth pony had looked at this land and saw the rocky outcroppings of precious gems that would make Rarity jealous. Rubies, sapphires, agates, even a diamond the size of that boulder Rarity carried around during Discord's magic tricks. Somehow the land just knew what she was thinking and shaped itself to her will.

She just shrugged and trudged forwards, the plow cutting into the topsoil and burying all the noxious weeds that were strangling her chances of growing some prime time apple themed products. Sweat began to bead on her brow and every few rows she had to stop and wipe the stinging liquid out of her eyes. Her pounding chest was working double overtime because of the winds that kicked up hot and dusty topsoil into her face.

Suddenly the weight of the plow shifted and it felt as if it was flying away from her. But that seemed impossible. Glancing over to her left made her mind go blank. _"Ah can't believe that Luna is standin' right next to me and all." _ Said Alicorn princess was currently trying to make the plow resize itself into a larger alicorn version with her magic.

"We saw that you might need some assistance. Let us have a walk." Applejack fell in line with the alicorn.

"So you did get the letter." Applejack sighed. Luna was just so hard to read with her emotions.

"We have much to discuss about some aspects of all this." Luna swept a hoof across the horizon while Applejack stopped in her tracks.

"What are you tryin' to say? Ah know this is all a dream."

Luna just smiled demurely and continued with the plow. Applejack could swear that she heard Luna laugh at her. The small tittering laughter tried to echo in this place but was sucked into the inky blackness of night. "Oh fair Applejack. you do not grasp the sheer uniqueness that you possess. Our sister placed wards upon the Dreamlands for any equine that was under her domain. And she was thorough, Celestia was never a pony that did anything in half measures. She had planned for Discord to be sealed in stone for thousands of years and only our fascination with the darker magics made me unfit to wield the Elements of Harmony that we discovered."

The sloping hills made the pair turn back to the decrepit farm and start the next row of furrows.

"Elements? You used more than one of them?"

"Of course! Celestia had the Elements of Kindness, Generosity, and Magic while we had the Elements of Honesty, Laughter, and Loyalty. Hindsight is always painful because we found a black book that had traveled the countless aeons to our side and we dared to use its magics because we wanted recognition while the ponies rested." Luna looked pained and Applejack put a comforting hoof on her leg. A sadness came over Luna's features for just a few seconds and was quickly banished away to her cold emotion of silence that she normally wore due to her royal standing.

"So what does this have to do with me?'

"You are what the Dreamlands has come to term a lucid dreamer. Those who have the very rare gift can shape the aether of this realm into useful and much more inviting shapes and can make their liege lord a very happy creature. Would you like to be our Shield and protect our heart?" Luna said this without blinking and almost completely devoid of emotion almost as if she was asking for the time of day instead of a very important knighthood position. Applejack froze and began to panic. Things were just going to fast and she didn't know how to react to Luna's demands- could it be that she had some sort of feelings for her as well or maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her again.

Luna had been off of Equestria for a thousand years while Nightmare Moon roamed freely in the Dreamlands. So her use of those sentences did not sound like a order of business to the orange mare. It sounded like a confession. So Applejack went with her first reaction, panicked, and did the one thing that was on her mind.

She kissed Luna full on the lips.

Darkness. A creature stalked towards the dream that pony princess was in and it broke into a loping run. Its face was devoid of such necessities of eyes, nose, a mouth- they only served to give creatures a useless way to show their incomplete emotions. The screams of the shantak birds gave it nourishment and its master wanted a word with pony princess.

The creature ripped open the dream bubble and walked its way into the presence of the dreamer. Its thin black body shivered as the long barbed tail that its master gave it twitched in anticipation for tickling its victims. It wings lifted it up as it sped off to the farm in the nearby distance.

Pony princess was important- dreamer was not.

Luna's entire world became black. The sky turned a dark shade of black that devoured the light that had clung so desperately to the soil. _"Oh Celestia. Not here. Not now."_

Applejack felt Luna's body stiffen and she pulled away from the kiss "You alright Luna? Ah didn't mean to-"

"Silence right now is preferable. We have a night-gaunt in our presence and we believe we know who sent it." Applejack was confused until she saw the creature sitting nearby watching them closely.

The creature had sat itself silently down as it waited for any kind of provocation. Its long spindly legs swayed back and forth and its horned head stared Applejack down with blind indifference. The tail danced playfully on the breeze tickling the air with its closeness and the creature held a silence menace that spoke volumes about its silent purpose.

Luna leaned into Applejack and whispered, "Follow our lead. Its master is not one we would cross lightly."

The night-gaunt waited patiently crossing and uncrossing its arms for the message that it knew was coming.

"Oh night-gaunt! Tell your master Nodens how wonderful his bearded glory is after so many years of him not answering our pleasant summons. We wish to tell the Lord of the Abyss that we have found our Shield and thus have created this mare our first Knight of Dreams. We hope to see your master in the Dreamlands soon because we shall be on a journey soon. The Sun Princess has tasked me to protect the Silver Keys of antiquity from falling into any of her enemies."

With a bow that made her snout almost touch the soil and her mane shifting from blue to a dark black, her ritual of prostration towards any and all creatures that were much more influential than her was complete. She had to bow a lot in the Dreamlands- thanks mostly in part to Nightmare Moon selling of her lands like a auctioneer and letting the rest fall into disarray during Luna's silent vigil on Equestria's Moon- unluckily for the Dreamlands, there always had to be a master for the nations of dream and Nightmare Moon was released on her subjects. She had lived up those thousand years until the Element Bearers had stopped her first foray into the waking world.

Nightmare Moon had a silver key in her possession then- it fell to Luna on the mare's destruction. She kept it locked up in her chambers afraid of what she could do with its reality warping powers. And it just stared back from the abyss taunting her with its promises, goading her into changing Equestria, bargaining with succulent promises.

The night-gaunt found the bow sufficient and flew off to whence it came. Back to the mountains where it roosted with its kind and sat silently in service to their master of the hunt.

Luna breathed a sigh of relief as the night-gaunt disappeared over the horizon. "We are glad that that foul beast is gone." Luna turned to see Applejack hyperventilating and crouching in terror. _"We should have accounted for this happening. Intelligent life doesn't like what it can't explain."_

The farm pony looked upon terror with questioning eyes. "How much of that was true?"

"Eh, we would guess about half of it. We presume our sister doesn't want the Silver Keys opening portals into her plane of light. And we had planned on a journey once we noticed your special abilities, and we haven't had a Knight of Dreams in, well, ever. So that 's about it."

"But-"

"We joke. All of it was true. See you bright and early for a chariot for Canterlot."

"Grahhhhh!" Applejack yelled up at the sky in anger. This wasn't what was supposed to happen with her confession! She was just a simple earth pony! Not any knight of dreams or some hooey!

And in response her dream ended and she was sent back to the waking world.

Luna just pranced off with a whistle and a bounce in her step. Oh she loved when she could joke about. This was almost as good as that zinger that made Celestia question her sanity a thousand years ago._ "We may no longer be Laughter, but we still got the delivery. Should we have said how much we enjoyed the kiss? Maybe we should query our sister in the morning and tell her of our exploits? Oh Tartarus! We forgot to tell her of the Changelings that come from here. We hope nothing shall come from that. . ."_

Luna flew off towards the waking world as well as giddy as a filly. She finally felt something akin to love stirring in her chest after all these years and she was both excited and terrified.


	2. Knights In White Satin

Celestia and Luna smiled at each other over the day's breakfast. The piles and piles of salads and breads stared up at the two mares begging to be chefs and waiters had created a meal that was far too fancy for Celestia this early in the day and she was currently trying to remember which fork to use for breakfast. The white alicorn noticed that her sister was in unusually high spirits today and wondered what could have caused her dramatic change in demeanor. Celestia spoke first to break the silence.

"So what has you in such high spirits?" Celestia quietly took a sip of her large cup of espresso which shot much needed caffeine into her body, waking her up enough to not want to bang her head against the wall when listening to her Courtly business.

"We plan to knight Honesty today." The blue alicorn was currently covered in her napkin and trying to shove a piece of cake into her nearby bread rolls. Celestia quickly noted to herself to show her sister later how plates worked. Truncheons of bread were so last millennium. Unlike Twilight, her mentor took the news of Applejack's knighting with better form. And Celestia knew there had to be something juicy.

"Oh do explain." She rested a hoof on her chin and pushed her plate away. A nearby servant came over and balanced the plates of food with her magic and walked into the kitchen. _"Wonder how fast that news will spread. I'll give it less than an hour."_

Luna was oblivious to the loud screaming and panic coming from the kitchen. "Oh sister, fair Applejack is a lucid dreamer and we can finally gather the Silver Keys to protect this realm from meddling."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at that. She had forgotten about how heated Luna got about the Dreamlands. And Smart Cookie was the last lucid dreamer Celestia knew of. "Are you sure that this isn't just a way for you to have somepony to love? You know how Starswirl took to that when you tried something like this before."

"She did kiss me until we were so rudely interrupted by one of Nodens' messengers." Luna grimaced, knowing that soon she would have to see him while on the journey. Pushing her chair back to get herself comfortable, she put her face in her hooves and sighed.

"So do you need any help with this romance? I could always call Cadance. She is currently in Manehattan and she would know a lot more about loving mortals than I do." Celestia calmly levitated a fork and pointed it at her embarrassed sister. Luna shook her head. She remembered the new alicorn princess that was far too pink for her tastes.

"No. We'll just get ready for the ceremony. Sister? Can you call Fleur Di Lis to our chambers?"

Celestia just smiled and nodded. "I'll ask Raven to contact her." The white alicorn turned away and walked towards her throne room ready to start the day. A chuckle almost escaped her lips as she wondered why Luna was so ready to have her own Guard again after so many years on the moon. And asking Fleur? _"I wonder how Luna will try to explain this to that mare?"_ The sound of her quiet chuckles echoed softly through the halls as she steadied herself for yet another day of courtly duties.

Applejack stared down at the passing countryside. She could see why Rainbow Dash never shut up about flying and how it made her feel so free. The wind brushing in her mane bringing far away scents that made her mind swim with reckless abandon. The spire of Canterlot was slowly approaching and the sun shone upon the mountain as if to welcome her to the capitol. _"Stay calm. It isn't like this'll cause anypony to see me any different." _

She had woken up at the crack of dawn hearing the sun chariot practically crashing in her apple fields and everypony yelling up a mighty storm. AJ thanked the stars that she didn't have to explain what was going on to Granny Smith. Somehow she just knew something was up and fell back asleep in her rocking chair with nothing more than a 'Who's muckin' up my fields?'

Applejack was never one for all those ideas about fancy junk. So even finding out that Luna hadn't been kidding about the chariot was not looking good for her future prospects.

A knock on the door woke up Fleur Di Lis and the exhausted unicorn quickly walked out of her chambers. Her cutie mark was emblazoned on the walls on white banners that showed her devotion to the Equestrian royalty. _'The Equestrian Diarchy- best not forget the Princess that seems to get a laugh every time she calls on me. Or not. Can't tell.'_

A colt with a patchwork coat was currently rolling of the couch, drool covering the pillow that he had unceremoniously baptized in late night reading binges of adventure stories. The sight of his adorable face made her heart jump in slow leaps.

"Mom? What's up?"

"Probably just work, sweetie."

The knocking doubled in urgency. The thing about royal business was that the Princesses just couldn't wait. They rose the celestial bodies every day and yet they felt as if wasting a few minutes would destroy Equestrian national security. Maybe it could, maybe not. With how often her services were called upon- Fleur was skeptical of how useful the alicorns were.

But maybe she was a little bit biased due to her unusual upbringing. Not many unicorns were royal knights or even had model looks. Which annoyed the white unicorn to no end since she was not one for the limelight. She just liked to be left alone and maybe have a nice and relaxing sparring session or two with an entire battalion of royal soldiers on her off days. And maybe get ice cream with her little Pipsqueak.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." Preparing herself for an earful of angry yelling by whoever was currently banging on her door, the mare opened her door with a smile that quickly faded as she saw who was on the other side of the door. Raven, Princess Celestia's assistant, was standing on the other side with a deadpan stare of mutual hostility. 'Great. Celestia seems to forget that we can't stand each other.'

Scanning her options of attack- from teleportation, which wouldn't work because the mare was also a unicorn, to pulling her rapier out and stabbing the mare in the throat for even trying to show up here again after that fiasco at the Gala, daggers, decapitation, hugging- nope- and worst of all- letting the mare in. Which she begrudgingly did.

"Tea? Crumpets?" Fleur tried to be nice and offer her companion some food because that's what ponies did. They kept the appearance of being all hunky dory and yet hating another pony if they got on their nerves. Or maybe that was just Pippy's pirate books speaking to her again.

"No, I do appreciate your courtesy but I already ate. I heard a rumor that you never ate food . I was just going to check if that was true." The unicorn's glasses framed face had the hint of a friendly smile.

"Ha ha, Raven." Fleur couldn't help but roll her eyes. She had always wished she didn't need food- but she wasn't a Changeling drone. Those beasts could and would suck the emotions right out of ponies if they weren't careful. 'I guess that nickname stuck. Changeling.' That unfortunate nickname was because the recruits of the guard couldn't believe that Fleur was just naturally long legged. They had to come up with some silly idea that she was Celestia's illegitimate lovechild. Celestia had a laugh riot when she heard about that. Not because it was false- but because it was actually true. Curse her being born a mortal hybrid unicorn. Or not- those dancing lessons her mother provided and the earth pony strength came in handy beating a hydra or twenty.

The sound of quiet snoring surprised the two mares and diffused the tense situation. Raven glanced over to the couch which contained one very small colt in a pirate costume. He wanted to go to Ponyville for Luna's first Nightmare Night since her return. And much to Fleur's displeasure, Pipsqueak hadn't changed his clothes since he got the costume on.

"I see you are still taking care of him."

"And what does that mean?" Fleur turned her head and glared at her 'guest'.

"Nothing. Just commenting on a very strange familial unit. One blademaster taking care of her out of wedlock son. It almost sounds poetic in some twisted way."

Fleur's eye subtly twitched. She was almost ready to release her rapier from its pocket dimension and shank this pony that knew just how to get on her nerves. _'Think of happy thoughts. Puppies mauling little bunnies, butterflies with fire wings, anything.'_ She quietly took a breath and smiled at Celestia's right hand mare.

"Now let's just cut this back and forth banter. We both know we hate each other. After all, I did accidentally push you down the stairs during guard practice. And then you tried to set my hair on fire the week after and I am just getting tired of this back and forth dislike that we created. So what in the name of Tartarus do you want?"

Raven just smiled. "We have a new knight coming for her little ceremony and Luna wants you to pick her up."

"Why isn't she here now?"

Luna paced around the Canterlot gardens, her hooves making a constant echo in the deserted gardens. Discord stared down on her stony faced and silent.

"Alright, Luna, we have this. It's just a short bow, then a full turn with a posterior shake, then a few lines, and then alicorn magic to Honesty's head to start the test."

"She's been panicking about the ceremony." Raven sighed. "She's no Celestia. those tender eyes, that wavy mane, those firm and beautiful-"

"Wow. Never would have pegged you for being a pony with actual feelings." Fleur internally cringed- her mother and her assistant in some scandalous position ran through her thoughts. Note to self: talk to mother about this on our next get together.

"It's not like that-" Raven's grey coat did not hide the large blush that tinged her cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah. Just have to say one thing before you go-" Fleur grabbed the other unicorn in her light purple aura and yanked Raven off her hooves. "If you ever, and I mean EVER- say anything about my son, who I very much love and protect, without my permission. . .I will end you." Fleur Di Lis gently placed the mentally scarred unicorn on her doorstep and shut the door.

_'Wanted to do that for years! I'm the only one who can talk bad about his doctor dad. And her creepy obsession with mother makes me want to hurl.'_ Fleur glanced over to the pile of documents that Raven had unceremoniously placed on her large marble table took out the dossier that outlined her new slaughter buddy. . .friend? She never was one for friends. They were just too whiny and wimpy. _'What do we have here? Ponyville?' _

Fleur grinned. Pippy was going to see his dad. Cause there's only so many stallions with a Trottingham accent. And she was going to give him a nice little talking to. She whistled a happy little song to herself as she picked up her adorably sleeping son and hugged him so very hard that he would feel all her love and hugginess.

"Mom, stop it that tickles." Pipsqueak said as Fleur hugged him and kept him close so that nopony would ever dream of hurting him. Cause if they did- they would be in a whole load of hurt.

"But you are my cute little pirate! Yes you are!"

"Pirates are supposed to be powerful and intimidating. Cute is nowhere near the pirate code of honor." Pip tried to puff out his chest in a big awesome gesture of his childlike wonder. Fleur couldn't help it. She could just see his father in him and it just made her all giddy.

"Okay then my little pirate captain of dubious repute."

Pip just grinned and rolled his eyes. "Gosh, I don't even know most of those words, but that was much better than saying the evil word- cute. Arr!" He then punctuated his statement by swinging his foreleg around in a swashbuckling fashion and hopped down to the floor. "I'm am a little hungry, though. . ."

Fleur raised her eyebrow while skimming the rest of the papers. "Oh really?" She quickly thought of leaving her darling son to the seedy Canterlot undercity where all the junkies and Dust-sellers were just preying on her son's moral innocence. She blanched as the scenario played out in her head- big bad stallion grabbing her little Pippy and forcing him to- "Do you want to go on Mommy's special assignment and later see Auntie Luna?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Pipsqueak was nearly hyperventilating in joy as the idea that his favorite Princess would see him and they would talk about what dreams he'd been having lately. Especially about that old stallion on that silly seashell chariot. Pip had been having some good old fashioned pirate talks with him. He liked him a lot.

"I'll take that as a yes?" Pip vigorously shook his head up and down. "Well then. We're going to stop by Hayburger once we pick up the mare I'm going to be training." Fleur levitated her saddlebags over and quickly ruffled through the contents. finding her wallet and sunhat, she and Pipsqueak set off to the nearby chariot landing strip.

"And this is the place that we will be holding the ceremony!" Fleur grinned as she looked up and down the new recruit that would be her newest training buddy. Athletic, general easygoing personality, overall good looks, and an Element of Harmony to boot!

"That's nice and all- but I really don't think I'll be needing this tour- I only need to talk to Luna and I really want to get out of this." Applejack kicked a hoof and waited to see what would happen with this mare that was escorting her around.

"I know how you feel. The stress that foisting such a revelation does tire a pony out and I should know- I get terrible surprises from my mother all the time. I mean yesterday she tried to make me stand in court and praise how good the Solar Guard was for a whole four hours. . .and the week before that she ran off to Las Pegasus while Discord was being taken care of- and I was left in charge here for a while. It was awful. " Fleur just shrugged and walked further down the hall.

"And then before that, she had to replace me with some foal from the Gifted Unicorn School and raise her to become a powerhouse. I mean she had so much potential of being a model or a dancer, but she had to be a bookworm?! The gall of some ponies!"

"Um." Applejack just blanked out as the unicorn continued her tirade. "-And then I said, ' I can tie you into a knot and toss you into the nearest mountain for free' and he balked at me!"

"I think we are here- uh. If I may ask, who are you?"

Fleur bowed and shifted her personality once again as the situation required. "Ah, excuse me- I am the Interim Guard Captain of the Solar Guard until the buffoon that runs it normally gets off his flank and pushes these recruits into line. My name is Fleur Di Lis Solaris- or just Fleur."

Applejack laughed. "What kind of name is that? Something from that Fancy language place?"

Fleur just flipped her head and turned. "I'll have you know that my mother is an important pony in Canterlot and it would not be useful to besmirch her name.

"And who would that be?"

Princess Celestia stared out at the combined legion that was her guard and was going to speak until a nagging sensation at the back of her nose was brought back and she sneezed. And then blew out a few recent windows in the nearby Hall of Achievement.

"Not telling." Fleur smirked as she began to think of ways to train this hayseed into Luna's personal knight in shining armor and make them have cute adorable fillies together. Because that was what she liked doing on her off days- having tea with Equestria's own personal shipping chart and talk about how everypony was doing.

Damn that Shining Armor. Cadance was her own tea time buddy. And he took her Sunday free time from the alicorn. She mentally shook a hoof at the stallion and grimaced- remembering that Shining and Cadance were having lots of alone time, together, in Manehattan.

Sconces lit the cold room as the four gathered ponies stood at attention. Shadows cast their ghoulish contours as the creeping hour of midnight was entered and the spheres of dream were in align. Two times of night made dreamwalking the most powerful- midnight, when most nocturnal denizens crept out and did their business, or three in the morning, where the breezies fairy rings powered magical flux into a piecemeal soup of energy.

"We are gathered in this hour of the darkest thickets when such boggarts and things immemorial are on the prowl- for we have in our Royal Presence a pony who wants to become a denizen of the night."

Pipsqueak oohed and ahhed as the ceremony continued. Each time his Auntie Luna did a 'Forsooth!' or a 'Begat by the foul darkness!' he provided the sound effects of thunder by waving a metal sheet with gusto.

Applejack tried to hold in her laughter at how much he reminded her of Applebloom and her pals.

"And with that, I pronounce you a walk into the inner recesses of the mind!" With that, a flashing strobe effect began to make Applejack feel disoriented and dizzy. Out of focus images of cold, emotionless statues and some weird feeling that Luna was performing some very awkward dance that would make Twilight have a run for her bits flashed through her mind.

The last thing she heard before she slipped into the blessed realm of sleep was a short and high pitched laughing fit from Fleur's side of the room.

The woods were deathly silent as Applejack breathed in the new smells of her location. If this was her test that Luna had been talking about before the blue alicorn had touched her horn to the farmer's head and caused the entire world to shift around the mare. Colors separated and twisted in geometric shapes that teased her eyes and made her taste the magic in the air.

She had woken up in a clearing near a large and dark forest with only things deemed necessary to her survival- some bandages, a magic fire kit, blankets, the normal essentials for a camping kit. And Applejack was worried- she hadn't had much free time to go gallivanting in the woods every weekend, so her camping skills were a bit rusty.

A hooting owl the size of a cart flapped its wings as Applejack dove deeper into the forest of no name and unknown age. _'Well, I guess that means I'm no longer in Equestria. Never saw an owl that ridiculously big. If owls are that big. . .what else is in the forest?'_ The orange mare felt fear but she tucked it away in a mental pocket and soon stopped at a large wrought iron gate with the first test's maxim.

"Defend me my noble knight. . . ."

Applejack had no inkling of what Luna's game and wording was about but she had to get out of here somehow and she knew that following the road to the end was the best chance as any. As she was inspecting the gate, a whimper broke out from the nearby brush and caused AJ to carefully push her way into the underbrush. Our noble and honest knight found herself staring at a scene that wouldn't be so far out of the books that Twilight seemed to enjoy.

Outside of the fact that there was a blob monster that was pulsating in geometric shapes and it .grew some hideous limbs in its attempts to crawl near a small and adorable version of Luna wearing a paper hat and waving a wooden sword.

"Have at thee foul and black-hearted shoggoth that aims it tentacles near my virgin body!"

The young alicorn began to quake feverishly because a snaking tendril of ooze wrapped around her middle and began to drag her into a nearby swamp. Her cries broke our enchanting knight from her timidity and picking up a nearby sharp stick in her strong jaws and rushing headlong into the fray.

Also known by some ponies who are not filled with chivalric spirit as being an idiot. But those ponies had no real drive to become heroes that would be sung of in poems and have fillies and stallions swoon in lusty passion.

And so our Knight of Dream drove her weapon down into the ooze that composed most of a shoggoth and the creature screamed great and long in pained wheezing and whatnot. The tentacle that had grasped the prized love interest of our strong and yet feminine beauty that was our knight, fell to the hard earth with a tumble. Our fair and virgin princess lost her paper crown and wailed long and hard about the happening. Fair Applejack tried to calm Luna but to no avail. So waiting out the emotional storm, Applejack beheld that our princessly figure was sad for the shoggoth.

Looking up at Applejack, Luna began to enchant her with her reply.

"We believe that is enough"

The scene changed as Applejack fell to the damp and moldy earth. Its detritus and blackish heart clinging to her hooves as the trees melted and shrank into bushes and the forked path in the narrow woods shifted into a demanding castle.

"Princess Luna? What's going on?" The small alicorn that had given the farmer her scare had disappeared. Looking around, Applejack noticed that the moon was hanging low to the ground and almost touching the earth. A small rope made of moonbeams beckoned as the sounds of howling churlish things began to close into the courtyard.

Applejack trotted up as fast as she could to the rope and began to climb with her Earth Pony magic taking care of her balance. Hoof over hoof, she climbed the swirling expanse of void as memories began to surface in small fits.

_"Dearest, do be careful."_

Souls of the departed broke into her consciousness. She hadn't thought of that day ever since Bloom had been a few weeks old.

_Sweet Apple Acres was failing. The harvest of Zap Apples had been stolen by the alpha wolven of the furthest dream cycle that intersected Reality. The apples had been found in states of rotten decay- their meaty flesh sucked dry of all important nutrients and the shining examples of natural beauty were husks of their former selves._

No must not remember. Remembrance meant pain.

_"Daddy? Where are you and mommy going?" A young Applejack sat warm and coy in her bed. Her last memory of her parents- their faces wreathed in shadow- was repeating._

_"Don't worry dear. Your Ma and I have to do some chores. Just be tucked up here and do not move at all- even if you hear anything. Jus-" Her wraith of a father blinked tears from his eyes and turned away. "Just be safe and listen to Granny."_

_"And what about that doodad?" Applejack pointed at a key that hung proudly on her father's chest. Its silver body spoke of mystic things while its inlaid emeralds spoke of hope and life wrapped around a chosen path to somewhere in distant climes._

_"This is our family's heirloom."_

Applejack broke out of the dream bubble and gasped for air as gravity pulled her towards the lunar surface in this topsy turvy place. An obsidian castle rested in the lunar dust. Applejack sensed movement down below and curled into a ball to make impact with the ground as painless as possible. Before she could hit the ground a calming blue aura surrounded her and set her down on the gray and lifeless surface.

"Hi." A voice made Applejack freeze. It was like Luna's natural voice but it had a different lilt to it. Luna's voice was dark and impersonal while the new voice sounded like Luna- but it had a happy ring to it.

"Oh don't be worried." Two blue wings enveloped AJ in the most personal hug of her life. The feathers tickled her face as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"Who are you and what have you done to Luna?" Applejack spat out the reply, her muscles tensing more and more as the feathers massaged her in ways that only the best masseuses could do. Or at least that was what Rarity had told her when the white mare had not shut up about how nice Aloe and Lotus were at their craft.

Silence reigned as the attacker began to fold up and fade away into nothingness. Applejack was alone. The cold and unflinching sense of loneliness pervaded her fortress of solitude. The silence of space was pervasive. Applejack was going mad. There was no way that this was real- the shifts in locations was just her mind trying to make sense of the last few days.

And then she glanced over and she could not believe that there was a massive fire opal of the brightest orange. Its facets shone with the lifeblood of the sun and its inside showed many things that should not be.

Crawling, hideous beasts of night that howled their praises to the deepest darkest gods of aeons past, places that could not exist that were gemstone castles, vistas that were covered in grasses the were the colors of the rainbow, and most of all- she saw her parents.

Hoofsteps somehow echoed in the silent void. "We did not expect for you to react so violently to our trials." Luna sat down next to Applejack and put a comforting wing around the mare. "We- I have been scrying through the memories of your self- the construct that has given your very fragile conscious form."

Applejack breathed slowly. "Am I dead or something now- the whole shifting landscape seems to be heading that direction."

Luna shook her head. "No, not dead. Surely you have heard of the descending nature of dreams- I had put you under an enchanted slumber. And then your memories had trapped you further into a slumber- and now we are here. What I like to call the Equestrian Dreamlands. We have been here before you and I-"

Applejack piped up. "But I don't remember doing all that the first thousand times."

Luna curled up slowly into a ball. Her hair shifted from red to blue as the stars danced across her starry mane and she blushed. "I thought we could be alone. Together. And you had passed my tests in a roundabout way- Tiberius is mad that you stabbed him by the way."

"Tiberius?"

"Apologies- he is my pet. Like Tia's phoenix. His form shifts often- one day he is a shoggoth- the next he is an opossum- and whatnot."

'Okay. . ." Applejack grinned and shook her head. Maybe she would just have to adjust her worldview. Anyway she could look at it- her and the girls weren't normal anymore. Not since they had cleansed Luna of Nightmare Moon.

Maybe she could get on board with this new adventure and have fun with all her new friends. And her old ones of course.

"Fairest Applejack, do you take my name as sacrosanct and hold my safety to the highest degree?" Luna patiently waited for the weapon contract to forge a bond between the planes and let her knights hold weapons that could banish the hardiest of Elder Beings with enough effort.

"I did say yes before." Applejack beamed at the lunar Princess and lowest ruler of the Dreamlands with a smile that lit up the silent lunar landscape in a reddish hue. Glancing around, Applejack shook her head. "Has it gone red? Can't believe that this place is still messing with me."

Luna said nothing and hid her control over the landscape via her emotional state. Blushing profusely, the diarch pointed at the large orange crystal and picked up the farmer with her aura, judged how far the crystal was, and tossed Applejack like a javelin.

As Applejack hit the crystal, it imploded and slowly began to slough off pieces of unless parts of itself. Its malleable form searched for a form that would please its new owner. It couldn't be a large gem anymore- that had been for another wielder that praised beauty over practicality.. The true honesty gem flitted about the earth pony. She was its user and it had to shift accordingly. It continued to scan her memories until it settled on its form and quieted and lay still.

"Ow, Luna what was that for?"

Luna used her Royal Canterlot Voice and jokingly yelled at her newest knight of dreams. "Tia, said to use 'flair' and that's what I came up with!" Luna was practically acting like a filly with how pleased she felt. Applejack just groaned and chalked that up to what Twilight called 'Alicorn Boredom' and cursed how gullible Luna was.

"Applejack, you can pick up your weapon now."

Applejack turned and saw that the orange gem that had been there a mere moment ago had transformed into a battle ax that was just the right size for her to swing comfortably and yet be sharp enough to fell a tree with a swing. Applejack was surprised though that the bladed portion of the ax was so large- it curved dangerously close to the wooden handle and was half as long as it.

Words came to mind as the connection between wielder and weapon cooled into a soul bonded connection that would let the two things mesh as one and fall into the happier land that was Celestia's domain.

"Sing, Volsung." Applejack was enveloped in the calmest breeze that carried the smell of apples and she slumped down and began to cry in relief and pure joy. Soulbonding had that effect on ponies. A pervasive sense of truest accomplishment and inner peace.

_Two Days Later_

A chariot descended from the skies as four passengers looked down on the town of Ponyville. The vehicle held two knights, a sea captain, and a princess.

"Mom, look- I can see Dad's house from here!" Pipsqueak laughed as the chariot began its corkscrew landing procedures and skimmed over the rooftops of the quiet hamlet.

The three other passengers glanced over as the white unicorn/earth pony hybrid began to laugh as her plans for making this assignment more fun than usual. "Oh, this is going to make my year. Pippy! Are you ready to have a nice family reunion?"

"Yeah!"

Luna shook her head. Celestia had told her of her own failings as a mother- but to think that Fleur was her niece was a bit unsettling. The mare had the best interests out for Equestria and her academy records were stellar- she just was unstable.

"This is going to take some getting used to." Luna sighed as she and Applejack shared a look as the four stepped out into the town.


End file.
